The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

This was a fascinating book. I will never think about Albert Einstein the same way again. Brilliant people are always unique. I loved reading about him as a young man. He was charming and smart and persistent. He didn't care what other people thought of him. I love how he pursued Mileva tirelessly and collaborated with her for so many years. It's makes sense that he would fall in love with a brilliant mathematician. Being unconventional, it would have been difficult for him to find a job to support a wife and children. In the end, he did defy his parent's wishes by marrying Mileva, but he certainly did not do her justice. His reluctance - and unwillingness - to meet his daughter is inexcusable in my opinion. That's where he lost my understanding and support. Just because you are a genius, it doesn't give you the right to treat people like crap - especially the woman you profess to love.

It makes sense to me that he would make his collaboration with Mitza his own ideas. It mattered back then that Mitza didn't have a degree. I didn't see him as a insecure man in general, but his difficulty in finding a job must have knocked him down a few pegs. I think he was jealous of Mitza's intelligence, even though that is what drew him to her in the first place. Men back then did not publicly work together with their wife to come up with things like the Theory of Relativity. (Unless you are the husband of Madame Curie!)

I did not know that Albert Einstein had two wives. I also didn't know that he married his cousin. It's incredibly sad to me that Albert stopped treasuring what he loved about Mitza in the first place. It seems like he felt threatened by her intelligence. He valued her mind, yet he couldn't support it publicly, which made him a smaller man in my eyes.

So, did this book change my perception of Einstein? Certainly. How could it not? He made significant contributions to physics - and our understanding of it. But now I know/suspect that he had help from "the other Einstein". Let's give credit where credit is due.

I am happy that he followed through with their divorce settlement and gave her the Nobel Prize money. It was also interesting that he paid for her care until she died. It's sad that their younger son was mentally ill. There is such a fine line between genius and mental illness. How tragic that Tete fell on the side of mental illness.

Wendy's Rating: *****